Self-organization in construction projects?
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2017-11-23
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en
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Abstract
Despite the many organizational control problems, such as time delay, cost overrun, waste and safety, more and more construction projects are performed nowadays. Within organizations that are confronted with a highly complex environment, such as a construction project, it can be argued that organizational control emerges through self-organizing activities of operators. Therefore, this research tries to discover how organizational control is developed by means of self-organizing activities of operators within a construction project and how this process is influenced by the structure of the temporary construction organization. In doing so, this study will answer the following research question:
In what way are self-organizing activities of operators within construction project X influenced by structural characteristics of the temporary project organization?
To answer the research question, a case study has been executed within a Dutch construction project. The aim of this case study was to develop a grounded theory. To do so, in total 12 interviews were conducted with different project participants. The interviews were transcribed and the data was subsequently analyzed to develop the grounded theory. This has resulted in the following ten hypotheses that discover the influence of the organizational structure of the temporary construction organization on self-organizing activities of construction workers.
• Hypothesis 1: Organizational control within construction projects is barely developed through self-organizing activities of construction workers, since construction workers often cannot solve problems independently;
• Hypothesis 2: The structure of the temporary construction organization is highly functionally concentrated;
Hypothesis 3: The high level of functional concentration leads to a complex network of interactions (i.e. internal complexity), which influences the occurrence of disturbances and simultaneously impedes self-organizing activities to deal with them;
• Hypothesis 4: Within project teams of subcontractors there is a high level of differentiation of making, preparing and supporting activities;
• Hypothesis 5: The high level of differentiation of making, preparation and supporting activities leads to a complex network of interactions (i.e. internal complexity), which influences the occurrence of disturbances and simultaneously impedes self-organizing activities to deal with them;
• Hypothesis 6: Within project teams of subcontractors there is a high level of separation between operational and regulatory tasks;
• Hypothesis 7: Construction workers regularly have to deal with problems they cannot solve themselves, since there is a high level of differentiation between operational and regulatory tasks within project teams of subcontractors;
• Hypothesis 8: There is a high level of differentiation of regulatory activities over parts of the process within the temporary construction organization;
• Hypothesis 9: The high level of differentiation of regulatory activities over parts of the process influences the number of disturbances that arise within the temporary construction organization and impedes the self-organizing activities of construction workers to deal with them independently;
• Hypothesis 10: Structural coupling between different elements (i.e. subcontractors) within the temporary organization is largely made on a central level, with the aim to reduce the need for structural coupling on the construction site.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen